UK: Al-Qaeda Terrorist

A man described by a tribunal judge as a serious threat to the national security has won his appeal to stay in Britain. Abid Naseer has been arrested in April last year, along with several other men, on suspicion of being a ring leader planning a terror attack in the UK.

Two terror suspects, Abid Naseer and Ahmad Faraz Khan, firmly appealed against deportation to Pakistan. A special immigration court said that Naseer was an al-Qaeda operative, but neither man should be deported.

The two men were among those 10 Pakistanis who have been arrested last April as part of a massive counter-terrorism operation in Liverpool and Manchester. The security services believed that the men were planning to attack within days of their arrest, but neither was charged.

Finally the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac) said it believed Mr Naseer, 23, posted a serious threat to national security. It found that he had been sending e-mails to an “al-Qaeda operative” in Pakistan – the e-mails were said to be at the heart of a plot to bomb targets in north-west England. Also it said Ahmad Faraz Khan, 23, had been a “knowing party” to the attack plan. But in both cases, Mr Justice Mitting said it would be wrong to send back the men to Pakistan.